Township hall signs show lack of respect

Oct. 8, 2013  PLYMOUTH EAGLE

EDITORIAL

By: Susan Willett, Publisher

Associated Newspapers of Michigan

Once again, officials in Plymouth Township Hall have confounded us with their arrogance, pettiness and childish behavior.

Trustee Bob Doroshewitz and Clerk Nancy Conzelman, Supervisor Richard Reaume and Treasurer Ron Edwards. Trustee Mike Kelly got in on the emailing, too.

None of them were been pretty.

It seems that a visitor took photos of some large promotional displays in Plymouth Township Hall touting the pro- posed amphitheater, pavilion, footbridge and the rest of the $1.9 million in “improvements” the township board members plan to make in the community. Well, four of the board members, anyway. Each of the displays featured a color rendering of one of the planned improvements with the line “We’re Making Plymouth Township Even Better” and photos of the four officials, Conzelman, Reaume, Edwards and Trustee Kay Arnold, who voted for the bond sale.

The displays, which we understand have now been taken down, did not include photos of the other three board members. Only those who voted for the bond sale were pictured, which apparently provoked the other three.

Here’s what we don’t understand.

How could these displays tout these “proposed” improvements when they have yet to be approved by a vote of the board members? According to state law, each of these projects must be approved by a vote of a majority of the board members. There has been no such vote. The sale of the bonds was approved by a 4-3 vote, but the individual projects have not yet been considered.

It is obvious that whoever is responsible for the display was confident that each of the projects would be approved by the four officials pictured even though no vote has taken place. Disregarding the arrogance of omitting the other trustees from the displays and the petty and vindictive nature such a juvenile and immature antic reveals, we are aghast and disgusted by the blatant disregard for procedure and accountability this horrible display of ego represents.

It is distressingly obvious that the person responsible for this gloating showcase of power is the same individual or individuals who spent a fortune of the taxpayers’ money on legal fees to be sure that these same citizens were denied their right to vote on having a fire department in the community. These officials arbitrarily and maliciously sought to derail the right of the public to vote on funding a fire department but are now capriciously and willfully spending nearly $2 million for recreation improvements in the township. The only vote on that came from three members of the board who do not have the intelligence or common sense to understand their support enables a stubborn, vindictive, out-of-control despot who was, and obviously will be, the fourth vote.

Whoever put up the display is sure of these four votes for each of the projects. We’re sure there was no violation of the Open Meetings Act to determine how the votes would go, however. There probably wasn’t even any need for a round- robin informal discussion, because the official driving this project is supremely confident of his ability to control the other three marionettes on the board.

The only possible way the public will have any representation or input into the spending of another $1.9 million of their tax money on this project is if, somehow, the strings break on these wooded-headed puppets.

|News Plymouth Michigan